*** ALL TEXT AND IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF RUSH COLE. NO PART OF THIS WEBSITE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC, OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING, OR BY ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM RUSH COLE.
***"Gallery-Wrapped" describes images on stretched canvas painted on all four sides, making additional framing unnecessary.***
This website owned and operated by Rush Cole.
rushcolefineart@aol.com
Rush Cole in the studio, May 25, 2022.
RUSH COLE FINE ART
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS, (Prototype, 24"x 60"
acrylic on canvas, Copyright Rush Cole 1982)
"CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS: An Historical Montage"
96" height x 240" width, (8 feet x 20 feet) Acrylic on canvas.
Copyright Rush Cole 1983. All rights reserved.
City Of Corpus Christi, Texas,
PUBLIC ART COLLECTION
American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas
"INDIANAPOLIS, A Portrait"
48" x 72", Oil on canvas
Copyright Rush Cole 1992. All rights reserved.
"Rush Cole's VIVA SANTA FE!"
48" x 72", Oil on canvas, Gallery-wrapped.
Copyright Rush Cole 2009. All rights reserved.
“AMERICAN RODEO:
It Always Begins With A Prayer”
Copyright Rush Cole
Official poster art~65th Annual PRCA
Rodeo de Santa Fe 2014
"GOOD RIDE!"
Copyright Rush Cole
Official poster art~66th Annual PRCA
Rodeo de Santa Fe 2015
Below:
Cole's meticulously researched, detailed, and painted portrait of the city her heart
chose as home. Requiring more than a full year of easel work, the image is a visual history of
Santa Fe, New Mexico's more than 400 years as America's oldest capital city.
In 2012, Cole was cast as a Red Pony Regular background actor, appearing in all six seasons of the hit Netflix TV LONGMIRE Mystery Series, filmed in northern New Mexico.
Two of Cole's classic rodeo paintings were selected as the official poster for Rodeo de Santa Fe!
Adam Bartley, Rush Cole, Robert Taylor, off duty and having fun at Rodeo De Santa Fe, June, 2014.
ALL images and text on this website are the sole property of Rush Cole.
At the easel, May 2022.
Please click images for more information.
~Painting the richness of Life!~
*Purchase of original art entitles buyer to only the possession of the physical work. Artist retains and reserves all legal copyrights, as described and protected under U.S. Copyright law. Owners of original artwork do not have the right to reproduce the artwork for any reason whatsoever.
BIO
Born to severely dysfunctional parents, Rush Cole grew up striving to create a sense of beauty and peace in her hard young life, doing so by drawing and painting in stolen moments. Barely twelve when she made her first art sale, by the end of eighth grade she was named "Most Promising Art Student" out of hundreds of fellow classmates! After entering high school, her art teachers and the school principal began purchasing her work, while her classmates commissioned her to create portraits of their boyfriends and girlfriends. Her friends' parents also purchased her drawings and paintings.
Years later, in 1982, Cole won a statewide competition in Texas to paint a definitive mural for the City of Corpus Christi, depicting the history, culture, and/or environment of the community. Following intense research and travel around the area, sketching and photographing, Rush chose to combine all three categories by composing a visual montage that reads from left to right: earliest history to the present day: covering more than five hundred years. The completed mural measures 8 feet high by 20 feet wide and is on permanent exhibit in the American Bank Center as part of Corpus Christi's public art collection. Thus began her penchant for composing historical portraits of entire cities!
To date, Cole has spent decades working as a fine artist. By simply setting her hand to the joyous task of using her creative abilities, she ended up providing herself a classical art education; reading and researching the great artists from the past, and then honing her hard-fought-for drawing and painting skills. Evidently, she did an okay job, since she was duly invited to teach accredited courses in drawing and watercolor painting for the University of Alaska!
Cole has won numerous awards in juried national and international art competitions; including Best Of Show in the National Watercolor Society, one of the highest, most prestigious awards available to watercolor artists in America. Her artwork is part of many private, corporate, and museum collections in the United States and abroad. Cole is also an accomplished portrait artist; commissioned to paint many, many humans and animals for both private and corporate patrons.
In 1996, Rush moved from the Midwest to the American Southwest, the home her heart called her to, and has steadily allowed the new environment to influence her creative visions. Subsequent years spent horseback, riding through wilderness areas in New Mexico and Arizona, in addition to occasionally helping work cattle on sprawling ranches, has provided grounded experiences she draws on for her paintings of western life. Cole was also selected as the official Rodeo De Santa Fe artist in 2014 and 2015, allowing her close-up and personal access to every aspect of an annual professional PRCA rodeo event.
Widening the scope of her creativity to include the literary arts in 2020, Cole has also been applauded for her writing. As an indie author and publisher, both her first memoir, "DREAM OF THE BUTTERFLY", followed by a volume of artwork, "ART OF THE JOURNEY", an illustrated retrospective collection spanning twenty-one years, have been enthusiastically received and lauded by readers and art lovers alike.
Cole's maiden work of fiction, "THE BOMBSHELL RIDES AGAIN", a mystery tale, was published in summer, 2022, and has also received enthusiastically positive reviews.
Just for fun, Rush Cole worked as a background actor on the hit mystery series, "LONGMIRE" for all six years that the television show aired!
